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President Traian Basescu apologizes
On may 19th, 2007, Mr. Traian Basescu, President of
Romania, addressed to journalist Andreea Pana: "You,
pussy, don't you have anything to do today?" and then
said about her in private: "How aggressive that stinky
Gypsy was ".
Subsequently, Mr. Basescu apologizes to Andreea Pana
for an "underserved moral prejudice" and ads that "the
used phrasing [
] doesn't represent in any way the
President' attitude [
] towards the Roma community in
our country [
]".
Romani CRISS publicly condemns the sexist and racist
statement of Romanian President who, through his
personal example, feeds and legitimates the use of
such language by anybody, a language that leads to
increase of intolerance among Romanian citizens,
especially that Romania has become an European Union
member state and that 2007 is the European Year of
Equal Opportunities for All.
According to the Presidency's press release, Mr.
Basescu doesn't regret what he said, but that "an
inappropriate expression [
] has become public". There
are no public apologies to the women in Romania who
have been insulted by the offending language "you,
pussy", nor to the Roma community, as Mr. President
doesn't see any relation between him saying "Gypsy"
and the Roma community - it is just an expression
"used under a state of maximum political and media
pressure".
No pressure justifies such language towards the women
and Roma, especially from a president of a country.
And if the term "Gypsy" was said only to be pejorative
towards a person, this shows, once again that, despite
politically correct speeches or official positions,
there are still deep internalized bias in the majority
population in Romania.
We are looking forward to a second press release
directly from President Traian Basescu, with sincere
apologies to all the insulted: women and Roma in
Romania.
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